With their representatives engaged in an ongoing dispute with mayor Bill de Blasio, New York Police Department officers have drastically cut back on issuing tickets and summonses, the New York Times reports. Arrests have also dropped:
For the seven days ending Sunday, officers made 2,401 arrests citywide, compared with 5,448 in the same week a year ago, a 56 percent decline. For criminal infractions, most precincts’ tallies for the week were close to zero. Citywide, there were 347 criminal summonses written, compared with 4,077 in the same week a year ago, according to Police Department statistics. Parking and traffic tickets also dropped more than 90 percent, the statistics showed.
The drop in activity began after the Dec. 20 murder of officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in Brooklyn, which some officers blamed in part on comments the mayor has made about the NYPD’s fraught relationship with minority communities.
The Times says the slowdown is the result of officers “apparently using their own discretion to largely ignore low-level offenses” rather than a concerted effort organized by union leaders.
